Views From Kennewick

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Sergeant in Afghanistan - Stop the BS and "Let's Get It Done"

Posted By Blackfive"It is proper to demand more from the man with exceptional advantages than from the man without them. A heavy moral obligation rests upon the man of means and upon the man of education to do their full duty by their country. On no class does this obligation rest more heavily than upon the men with a collegiate education, the men who are graduates of our universities. Their education gives them no right to feel the least superiority over any of their fellow-citizens..." - Theodore RooseveltI've got permission to go hot with this. This is typical of what I've been hearing.

It's a manifesto of sorts from a Staff Sergeant in the fight in Afghanistan. He had an experience recently while on mid-tour leave to see his wife and baby boy that was the last straw:Things that I am tired of in this war:I am tired of Democrats saying they are patriotic and then insulting my commander in chief and the way he goes about his job.

I am tired of Democrats who tell me they support me, the soldier on the ground, and then tell me the best plan to win this war is with a “phased redeployment” (liberal-speak for retreat) out of the combat zone to someplace like Okinawa.I am tired of the Democrats whining for months on T.V., in the New York Times, and in the House and Senate that we need more troops to win the war in Iraq, and then when my Commander in Chief plans to do just that, they say that is the wrong plan, it won’t work, and we need a “new direction.”I am tired of every Battalion Sergeant Major and Command Sergeant Major I see over here being more concerned about whether or not I am wearing my uniform in the “spot on,” most garrison-like manner; instead of asking me whether or not I am getting the equipment I need to win the fight, the support I need from my chain of command, or if the chow tastes good.I am tired of junior and senior officers continually doubting the technical expertise of junior enlisted soldiers who are trained far better to do the jobs they are trained for than these officers believe.I am tired of senior officers and commanders who fight this war with more of an eye on the media than on the enemy, who desperately needs killing.I am tired of the decisions of Sergeants and Privates made in the heat of battle being scrutinized by lawyers who were not there and will never really know the state of mind of the young soldiers who were there and what is asked of them in order to survive.I am tired of CNN claiming that they are showing “news,” with videotape sent to them by terrorists, of my comrades being shot at by snipers, but refusing to show what happens when we build a school, pave a road, hand out food and water to children, or open a water treatment plant.I am tired of following the enemy with drones that have cameras, and then dropping bombs that sometimes kill civilians; because we could do a better job of killing the right people by sending a man with a high powered rifle instead.

I am tired of the thousands of people in the rear who claim that they are working hard to support me when I see them with their mochas and their PX Bags walking down the street, in the middle of the day, nowhere near their workspaces.I am tired of Code Pink, Daily Kos, Al-Jazzera, CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CBS, the ACLU, and CAIR thinking that they somehow get to have a vote in how we blast, shoot and kill these animals who would seek to subdue us and destroy us.I am tired of people like Meredith Vieria from NBC asking oxygen thieves like Senator Chuck Hagel questions like “Senator, at this point, do you think we are fighting and dying for nothing?” Meredith might not get it, but soldiers do know the difference between fighting and dying for something and fighting and dying for nothing.I am tired of hearing multiple stories from both combat theaters about snipers begging to do their jobs while commanders worry about how the media might portray the possible casualties and what might happen to their career.I am tired of hearing that the Battalion Tactical Operations Center got a new plasma screen monitor for daily briefings, but rifle scope rings for sniper rifles, extra magazines, and necessary field gear were disapproved by the unit supply system.I am tired of out of touch general officers, senators, congressmen and defense officials who think that giving me some more heavy body armor to wear is helping me stay alive. Speed is life in combat and wearing 55 to 90 pounds of gear for 12 to 20 hours a day puts me at a great tactical disadvantage to the idiot, mindless terrorist who is wearing no armor at all and carrying an AK-47 and a pistol.I am tired of soldiers who are stationed in places like Kuwait and who are well away from any actual combat getting Hostile Fire/Imminent Danger Pay and the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion when they live on a base that has a McDonald’s, a Pizza Hut, a Subway, a Baskin Robbins, an internet café, 2 coffee shops and street lights.

I am tired of senior officers and commanders who take it out and "measure" every time they want to have a piece of the action with their helicopters or their artillery; instead of putting their egos aside and using their equipment to support the grunt on the ground.I am tired of senior officers and commanders who are too afraid for their careers to tell the truth about what they need to win this war to their bosses so that the soldiers can get on with kicking the ass of these animals.I am tired of Rules of Engagement being made by JAG lawyers and not Combat Commanders. We are not playing Hopscotch over here. There is no 2nd place trophy either. I think that if the enemy knew some rough treatment and some deprivation was at hand for them, instead of prayer rugs, special diets and free Korans; this might help get their terrorist minds “right.”I am tired of seeing Active Duty Army and Marine units being extended past their original redeployment dates, when there are National Guard Units that have yet to deploy to a combat zone in the last 40 years.I am tired of hearing soldiers who are stationed in safe places talk about how hard their life is.I am tired of seeing Infantry Soldiers conducting what amounts to “SWAT” raids and performing the US Army’s version of “CSI Iraq” and doing things like filling out forms for evidence when they could be better used to hunt and kill the enemy.I am tired of senior officers and commanders who look first in their planning for how many casualties we might take, instead of how many enemy casualties we might inflict.I am tired of begging to be turned loose so that this war can be over.Those of us who fight this war want to win it and go home to their families. Prolonging it with attempts to do things like collect “evidence” or present whiz bang briefings on a new plasma screen TV is wasteful and ultimately, dulls the edge of our Infantry soldiers who are trained to kill people and break things, not necessarily in that order.

We are not in Iraq and Afghanistan to build nations. We are there to kill our enemies. We make the work of the State Department easier by the results we achieve.It is only possible to defeat an enemy who kills indiscriminately by utterly destroying him. He cannot be made to yield or surrender. He will fight to the death by the hundreds to kill only one or two of us.And so far, all of our “games” have been “away games,” and I don’t know about the ignorant, treasonous Democrats and the completely insane radical leftists and their thoughts on the matter, but I would like to keep our road game schedule.So let’s get it done. Until the fight is won and there is no more fight left.-DPosted by Blackfive on January 30, 2007 • Permalink

Hi everyone. I'm still alive but freezing my tail off. We got 8 inches of snow last week and it reached 5 degrees below zero that night. That's not why I'm e-mailing though. You may have heard about a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul last Thursday. It was at one of our FOB's (Forward Observation Bases) about 27 miles from here. But the real story is why no one was killed. We employ several thousand Afghans on our various bases. Not to mention the economy that is fed by the money these locals are making. Some are laborers and builders, but some are skilled workers. We even have one Afghan that just became OSHA qualified, the first ever. Some are skilled HVAC workers . Anyway, there is this one Afghan that we call Rambo. We have actually given him a couple of sets of the new ACU uniforms (the new Army digital camouflage) with the name tag RAMBO on it. His entire family was killed by the Taliban and his home was where our base currently resides. So this guy really had nowhere else to go. He has reached such a level of trust with US Forces that his job is to stand at the front gate and basically be the first security screening. Since he can't have a weapon, he found a big red pipe. So he stands there at the front gate in his US Army ACU uniform with his red pipe. If a vehicle approaches the gate too fast or fails to stop he slams his pipe down on their hood. Then once the gate is lifted the vehicle moves on the 2nd gate where the US Army MP's are. So he's like the first line of defense. Last Thursday at 0930 hrs a Toyota Corolla packed with ex plosives and some Jack Ass that thinks he has 72 Virgins waiting for him approached the gate. When he saw Rambo he must have recognized him and known the gig was up. But he needed to get to that 2nd gate to detonate and take American lives. So he slams his foot on the gas which almost causes the metal gate to go up but mostly catches on the now broken windshield. Rambo fearlessly ran to the vehicle, reached thru the window and jerked the suicide bomber out of the vehicle before he could detonate and commenced to putting some red pipe to his heathen ass. He detained the guy until the MP got there. The vehicle only exploded when they tried to push it off base with a robot but know one was hurt. I'm still waiting for someone to give this guy a medal or something. Nothing less than instant US citizenship or something. A hat was passed around and a lot of money was given to hi m in thanks by both soldiers and civilians that are working over here. I guess I just wanted to share this because I want people to know that it's working over here. They have tasted freedom. This makes it worth it to me. JOHN W. ****, *** , US ARMY (for this soldiers' protection I've deleted his title, last name, and rank)Bagram Afghanistan

He recently wrote this in an email that was forwarded to me by a Jihad Watch reader who exchanged emails with him about his threatening me:

i am not an extremist, but i did threaten to kill a man who insulted islam.

What's "extremist" about that? The idea that people who insult Islam and Muhammad should be killed is mainstream in Islamic law, and is taught by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. I don't accept the assertion that I have done so by shedding light on the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify their actions, but that is a separate matter. From the perspective of Islamic law there is nothing "extremist" about Mohammed Saud at all.

Saud also recalls romeosay@hotmail.com, who also threatened me some time ago. In the course of his threats he said:

I will be violent against anyone who hurts muslim feelings about Prophet.

It is a religion of peace for everyone until some duckhead sprews out his damn saliva on a senstive topic as this. Spencer will be delivered.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Bangladesh Islamic group protests against women's cricket

Cricinfo staff and agencies

January 28, 2007

A Muslim group has protested against the new women's league in Bangladesh, labelling it "anti-Islamic". They have called on the interim government to scrap the ten-team tournament in Dhaka, just hours after the organisers were celebrating a trouble-free launch.

The hardline Islamic Constitution Movement, which has no representation in parliament, said women's cricket, and other field sports such as football, represented "alien culture." They called the league "anti-Islamic."

In a statement they said: "Women's cricket and football in front of thousands of spectators is against the country's tradition and culture and also is anti-Muslim civilization."

The Bangladesh Cricket Board say the ten-team tournament will continue as planned, however - as will plans for the first Bangladesh women's side. The top thirty players from the competition will be chosen for further training following the final.

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of 144 million that witnessed a spurt of militant attacks in late 2005 by a group that wanted courts to adhere to Islamic law. Six militants of the outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh were sentenced to death in the attacks which claimed 28 lives.

Camp Lejeune, N.C. - The Marines and their families here at this sprawling base on the Carolina coast didn't have much to say about the president's State of the Union address.

For many of them, his address the week before had been more important. It was then that they had learned that many more of them would be heading for Iraq - and that the "tour of duty" for those already there would be extended. But amazingly enough not one of them - despite Democrat bombast and mainstream media remonstrations to the contrary - expressed any anger at the commander in chief for the added sacrifice.

Camp Lejeune is the "home base" for the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, the unit our FOX News "War Stories" team was embedded with in Iraq for much of last month. For them, Al Anbar Province, Iraq is the "frontline." For most of their families, Camp Lejeune is the "homefront." We returned here to interview them - and several of the wounded, recuperating in the "Wounded Warrior" Barracks. Their élan and perseverance give new meaning to the president's words on Tuesday night: "In such courage and compassion.we see the spirit and character of America and these qualities are not in short supply."

Despite having spent most of my life in and with the Armed Forces and their families, it was personally moving to hear these young wives and mothers describe with grace and dignity - devoid of resentment - how they were dealing with the news of their husbands' delayed return. Equally compelling were the comments of the Marines themselves. None of them expressed anger or frustration with President Bush or their leaders. Several noted that they had volunteered to go back to Iraq - some for a third trip to the war. Two of the wounded warriors boldly stated that despite their injuries, they were "looking forward to getting back" to "finish the fight."

In the aftermath of the president's State of the Union address, Democrats claimed that, "the majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought - nor does the majority of our military." Regrettably, no one in the so-called mainstream has bothered to challenge this unsubstantiated allegation about the members of our armed forces. There certainly isn't a shred of evidence to validate that sentiment here - or with any of the scores of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen or Marines with whom I stay in contact from my eight trips to the war. To the extent, that there is discontent in our military it is aimed at the way the war has been misreported by my "colleagues" in the media and how it is being depicted by politicians in Washington.

In the days since the president's address, it's clear that the media's fixation on failure and the politicos' penchant for posturing on the war is unabated. Though Mr. Bush has repeatedly made it clear "that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far reaching," there is little indication that the potentates on the Potomac really care for anything except reaping political advantage. Nurtured by a media that is unwilling as ever to ignore successes, the solons of the Senate followed up the State of the Union address with a bevy of draft resolutions rebuking the commander in chief for sending additional troops to the war zone.

And the political posturing doesn't stop with attacks on the White House. When Lieutenant General David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, was asked by members of Senate Armed Services Committee if such a non-binding measure would have the effect of aiding and abetting the enemy, he replied, "Yes sir." For his straightforward, common-sense response, he was admonished by an erstwhile Republican to avoid being "too political." This "gentleman of the Senate," fond of referring to himself as his state's "Senior Senator," has of course, introduced his own pet resolution disputing the President's claim to be commander in chief.

A few hours after this odious exchange, an officer with whom I had spent many months in Iraq called me. "Do these people know what they are doing?" he inquired, clearly agitated.

"Which people?" I asked.

"These politicians who think we can win a war by committee. Do they even know that in the last two weeks we have set AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) and the Mahdi Army both back on their heels?" he answered. I was silent, so he continued, "Is there anyone in Washington who understands what this means? AQI terrorists are running like rats out of Ramadi. And the Mahdi Army is being cleaned out of Baghdad. Do they know how much harder all this rhetoric makes our job?"

My response was equivocal. "It's hard to tell what a member of Congress knows," I replied.

Having just returned from visiting wounded troops anxious to return to their units and the families of those who have been extended in Iraq, I didn't have the heart to say that the more important question is, "Does anyone in Congress care?"

Storm Track Infiltration: Top 15 CAIR Lowlights

The Council of American Islamic Relations touted its Top 10 CAIR Highlights of 2006 this month. Here they are.

1. CAIR Helps Secure Release of American Journalist in Iraq

2. CAIR Influences Public Debate on Dubai Ports, Profiling

3. CAIR Educates about Islam, Declares 2006 Year of the Prophet

4. CAIR Mobilizes Muslim Voters and Gets out the Vote

5. CAIR Releases Pioneering Research on American Muslims

6. CAIR Condemns Israeli War, Examines Israel Lobby

7. CAIR Addresses U.S.- Iran Relations, Iraq, Popes Comments

8. CAIR Defends Civil Rights by Taking Legal Action

9. CAIR Challenges Islamophobia

10. CAIR Empowers Muslims by Training Students, Imams

As you can see, CAIR has been busy last year keeping relations up. But The Religion of Peace sees their highlights another way.

We notice that CAIR is featuring a list of "Top 10 CAIR Highlights of 2006" on their front page this New Year's Eve, so we thought we would remind our readers of what CAIR would prefer people not to remember about the year that was.

CAIR ruins Keith Ellison's Congressional career before he takes office.

CAIR refuses to denounce the killing of Americans by Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CAIR promotes a list of "Fatwas against Terror" that actually includes advocates of Islamic terror.

CAIR is forced to drop their lawsuit against Anti-CAIR for calling it a terrorist front organization after realizing that it is one.

CAIR condemns the brief arrest of Hamas leaders in Gaza, but not the forced conversion of two U.S. journalists (nor 2,276 acts of Islamic terror in 2006 that resulted in the loss of innocent life).

CAIR fails to acknowledge the victims of 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, choosing to mark it instead with a spasm of self-pity.

CAIR condemns the Israeli "massacre" of Palestinian civilians, then has to retract its statement after finding out that they were actually killed by Palestinian explosives.

CAIR protests when a woman is asked to lower her veil at Heathrow airport the day before it is revealed that a Muslim cop-killer escaped through the airport using the veil as a disguise (CAIR then stays quiet as Heathrow implements a full ban on veils.)

Victims of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) take heart.No longer is it necessary to offer apologies or disclaimers -- a la Kiefer Sutherland of “24”-- when the supposed civil rights group accuses you of Islamophobia.According to talk-show host and columnist Dennis Prager, who recently told the Los Angeles Times that he is proud to be attacked by the “radical Islamist organization,” it is much better to wear CAIR’s contempt as a badge of honor.

Publicity is another benefit of being publicly smeared by CAIR, as was evident on the evening of January 24 when a packed house came to hear Prager speak on “Islam, Iran, the West and Israel” at the North County Chabad Center in Yorba Linda, California.Earlier in the day most of those in attendance had learned from a Los Angeles Times article (“Controversy follows Dennis Prager to Yorba Linda”) that CAIR was still fuming over a column Prager wrote in November in which he criticized Congressman Keith Ellison’s decision to take his oath of office on the Koran.Proving that a primary concern of her organization is not mature debate, CAIR spokeswoman Munira Syeda was quoted as saying Prager’s column had “undermined all the values of pluralism, diversity and respect for different minorities’ religious freedom” and that Prager “is using the anti-Muslim sentiment that is prevalent in the country right now to spread hate against Muslims.” In a press release about the Yorba Linda speech, CAIR accused the ChabadCenter of “hosting an Islamophobic speaker.”

Rabbi David Eliezrie of the ChabadCenter, who actually disagreed with Prager’s controversial column, immediately came to his defense telling the Times that CAIR’s personal attack was “akin to a blood libel.” Eliezrie also made clear that he would not respond to the bullying tactics used by CAIR to silence those who disagreed with its positions, adding that if CAIR “were interested in dialogue with the Jewish community, they would have sent me a gentle letter.”

Prager began his talk with an open invitation to publicly debate any member of CAIR.Interfaith dialogue is not new to Prager; between 1982 and 1992 he was the host of “Religion on the Line” on ABC radio in Los Angeles.As Prager made clear in his speech, he was chosen to be the moderator of the program because of his fairness to every religion.Indeed, he so was beloved in the Muslim community for having opened up mainstream American media to Muslims that he was repeatedly invited to speak in mosques and Islamic institutions.(He was a regular speaker at the famous Islamic Center of Southern California.)

It was with this history in mind that Prager said CAIR’s charge of Islamophobia would “make McCarthy cringe.”More than anything else, “Religion on the Line” showed Prager the truth ofNazi Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl’s statement: “There are only two races in the world -- the decent and the indecent.”It is Prager’s belief that America’s Judeo-Christian value system is what makes it the most decent country in the world.To drive this point home Prager asked the largely Jewish audience if they’d rather live in America or secular Europe, where anti-Semitism is prevalent. His opinion that America’s founders viewed America as a second Israel and the Jews as God’s chosen people was bolstered by little-known historic facts incorporated into his speech.The most powerful example given was the fact that Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both wanted the design of the seal of the United States to depict the Jews’ exodus from Egypt.

As for his negative opinion of Ellison’s decision, Prager made clear that it had nothing to do with Islam or the Koran and he offered a mea culpa for letting his passion defeat his reason when he wrote that Ellison “should not be allowed” to swear on the Koran.His primary concern has always been over the place of the Bible in American life.Contrary to what many of his readers think, America does not get its values from the Constitution. After all, Prager noted, the Soviet Union’s Constitution banned anti-Semitism even though the communist nation was one of the most anti-Semitic nations in history.

Ellison, Prager argued, could have honored the fact that America’s values are religiously based if he had brought a Bible along with his Koran to his swearing-in ceremony.This is what Osman Siddique -- the first Muslim to serve as a U.S. ambassador abroad -- did in 1999.Prager, a practicing Jew, stated that he would have no problem bringing a Koran to his own swearing-in ceremony if he lived in a Muslim country that was as free and tolerant as America.

Unfortunately, such freedom and tolerance is not prevalent in the Muslim world today.Prager admitted that he was worried about a significant percentage of the Muslim population that wants to murder others for believing differently.Just as troubling as this evil committed in God’s name is the reticence of the rest of the Muslim world to do anything about it.Looking at Rabbi Eliezrie, Prager stated the obvious:Jews would be so overwhelmed with anger if rabbis began slaughtering human beings as if they were sheep that they would protest such blasphemy in large numbers. But shouting “Allahu Akbar!” while beheading infidels brings nary a complaint from the Muslim world.

Muslim officials spend their time condemning people like Prager for being Islamophobic, not fighting the terrorism that is truly giving Islam a bad name.In her interview with the Times, for example, CAIRspokeswoman Syeda refused to condemn Hamas or Hezoballah as terrorist organizations.“I don’t understand what the relevance is,” she said.Rabbi Eliezrie spoke for many when he said, “I haven’t seen them condemn specific groups who are involved in terror in the Middle East, and that to me is very scary.”

Prager concluded his speech with some suggestions.To the West, he cautioned against bending over in cowardice because of charges of Islamophobia.Westerners need to be kind but firm if they ever want to help bring about the much needed self-criticism lacking in the Muslim world.

Muslims, meanwhile, need to stop thinking of themselves as victims.They dishonor Islam by getting angry at the slightest offense. Prager pointed out that dividing the world between Muslims and Infidels is an evil doctrine; Muslims should start measuring people by their actions, not their beliefs.

Prager offered this advice as a friend to Muslims throughout the world.The tragic irony is that CAIR views him as an enemy of Islam.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Mass Slaughter In Our Schools: The Terrorists' Chilling Plan

By Chuck RemsbergSenior PoliceOne Contributor

Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids' school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps.

* The intended attackers have bluntly warned us they're going to do it.

* They're already begun testing school-related targets here.

* They've given us a catastrophic model to train against, which we've largely ignored and they've learned more deadly tactics from.

"We don't know for sure what they will do. But by definition, a successful attack is one we are not ready for," declared one of the instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Our schools fit that description to a "T"-as in Terrorism and Threat.

Grossman, the popular law enforcement motivational speaker, and Todd Rassa, a trainer with the SigArms Academy and an advisory board member for The Police Marksman magazine, shared a full day's agenda on the danger to U.S. schools at a recent three-day conference on terrorist issues, sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI) in Atlantic City .

They reminded the audience that patrol officers, including perhaps some with their own children involved, will inevitably be the first responders when terrorists hit. And they documented chilling descriptions of the life-or-death challenges that likely will be faced.

In Part 1 of this three-part report on highlights of their presentations we focus on what's known about the threat to our schools to date, why terrorists have selected them as targets, and what tactics you're likely to be up against in responding to a sudden strike.

In Parts 2 and 3, we'll explore Grossman's and Rassa's recommendations for practical measures you and your agency can take now to get ready, including some defensive actions that don't require any budget allocations.

Why schools?Two reasons:

1. Our values. "The most sacred thing to us is our children, our babies," Rassa said. Killing hundreds of them at a time would significantly "boost Islamic morale and lower that of the enemy" (us). In Grossman's words, terrorists see this effort as "an attempt to defile our nation" by leaving it "stunned to its soul."

2. Our lack of preparation. Police agencies "aren't used to this," Rassa said. "We deal with acts of a criminal nature. This is an act of war," but because of our laws "we can't depend on the military to help us," at least at the outset.

Indeed, Grossman claimed, "the U.S. in the one nation in the world where the military is not the first line of defense against domestic terrorist attacks. By law, you the police officer are our Delta Force. It is your job to go in, while in most other nations cops will wait for the military to come save their kids."

School personnel, Rassa said, "are not even close" to being either mentally or physically prepared. "Most don't even have response plans for handling a single active shooter. Their world is taught to nurture and care for people. They don't want to deal with this."

The American public, "sticking their heads in the sand, can't be mentally prepared," he said. "They're going to freak when it happens," their stubborn denial making the crisis "all the more shocking."

Noting that "sheep have two speeds: 'grazing' and 'stampede,'" Grossman predicted that "not a parent in the nation will send their kids to school the next day"-perhaps for many days-after a large-scale terrorist massacre. If day-care centers-"also on the terrorists' list"-are hit as well, "parents will drop out of the work force" en masse to protect their children and "our economy will be devastated."

How we know they're coming.

Al-Qaeda has publicly asserted the "right" to kill 2,000,000 American children, Rassa explained, and has warned that "operations are in stages of preparation" now. He played vivid videotapes confiscated in Afghanistan, showing al-Qaeda terrorists practicing the takeover of a school. The trainees issue commands in English, rehearse separating youngsters into manageable groups and meeting any resistance with violence. Some "hostages" are taken to the rooftop, dangled over the edge, then "shot."

"Any place that has given [Islamic terrorists] trouble, they've come after the kids," Grossman said. Muslim religious literature, according to Rassa, states clearly that the killing of children not only is "permitted" in Islam but is "approved" by Mohammed, so long as the perpetrators "are striving for the general good" as interpreted by that religion.

He cited instances in Indonesia where girls on their way to school have been beheaded and in other countries where children have been shot, mutilated, raped or burned alive.

In this country this year ['06], Rassa said, there have been several school bus-related incidents involving Middle Eastern males that raise suspicion of terrorist activity. These include the surprise boarding of a school bus in Florida by two men in trench coats, who may have been on a canvassing mission, and the attempt in New York State by an Arab male to obtain a job as a school bus driver using fraudulent Social Security documents. The latter gave an address in Detroit, home to a large colony of fundamentalist Muslims.

Rassa claimed that floor plans for half a dozen schools in Virginia, Texas and New Jersey have been recovered from terrorist hands in Iraq.

The terrorists' tactical model.

A "dress rehearsal for what terrorists plan to do to us" has already taken place, Rassa and Grossman agreed. That was the brutal takedown in 2004 of a school that served children from 6 to 17 years old in Beslan, Russia.

Some 100 terrorists were involved, nearly half of whom were discreetly embedded in the large crowd of parents, staff and kids who showed up for the first day of school; the rest arrived for the surprise attack in SUVs, troop carriers and big sedans. Across a three-day siege, 700 people were wounded and 338 killed, including 172 youngsters.

If a similar assault were launched against a school in your jurisdiction, how would you and your agency respond?

Consider this modest sampling of challenges that were deliberately planned or arose from the ensuing chaos at Beslan, as outlined by Rassa:

* The school was chosen because it was one of the taller buildings in the area and had a very complicated floor plan, making a rapid and effective counter-assault by responders extremely difficult. Offender weaponry included AK-47s, sniper rifles, RPGs and explosives, with everything the terrorists needed carried in on their backs. RPGs were fired at a responding military helicopter and at troops.

* More than 1,000 men, women and children, including babies, were penned in an unventilated gym and a cafeteria. As the days passed without food or water and inside temperatures rose to 115 degrees, survivors were eating flowers they'd brought for teachers and fighting for urine to drink out of their shoes in desperation. Women and some children were repeatedly and continuously raped.

* Adult males and larger male students were used as "forced labor" to help fortify the building, then shot to death. Bodies were thrown out of an upper-story window, down onto a courtyard. Attempts at negotiation by responders were used by the terrorists strictly as an opportunity to buy time to solidify their fortifications.

* Surviving hostages were surrounded by armed guards standing on deadman switches, wired to explosives. All entrances to the building as well as stairwells and some interior doorways were booby-trapped. Youngsters were forced to sit on window sills to serve as shields for snipers. "Black widows" (potential suicide bombers) were rigged so their bomb belts could be detonated by remote control when leaders considered the timing was right. The terrorists stayed cranked up on some type of amphetamine to keep awake.

* Armed, outraged parents and other civilians, some of them drunk, showed up and started "rolling gunfights" outside in a futile effort to defeat the takeover. The crowd identified one embedded terrorist and "literally ripped him apart." The media was everywhere, unrestrained. So many people were milling around that responders often could not establish a clear field of fire.

* When troops finally stormed the school in a counter-assault on the third day, "pure pandemonium" reigned. Soldiers and the kids they were trying to rescue were gunned down mercilessly. Explosions touched off inside started multiple fires.

* Responders who made it inside had to jump over trip wires as they "ran" up stairs under fire from above. By then terrorists were holding hostages in virtually every room. Rescue teams were subjected to continual ambushes. Gunfights occurred predominately within a 6-ft. range, with some responders having to fight for their lives in places so cramped they couldn't get off their hands and knees.

* Some children successfully rescued from the building were so crazed by thirst that they ran to an outdoor spigot and were killed by a grenade as they filled their hands with water.

* Terrorists who escaped during the melee ran to homes of embedded sympathizers who hid them successfully and were not immediately suspected because they were considered "non-strangers" in the community. Some townspeople who volunteered to help as stretcher bearers for the injured were, in fact, embedded terrorists.

* During the siege "at least four people or agencies claimed to be in charge. Actually, no one was in charge and no one wanted to be."

"Osama bin Laden has promised that what has happened in Russia will happen to us many times over," Grossman warned. "And Osama tries very hard never to lie to us."

What's likely here.

Probably not so many terrorists involved at a single location. Moving that big a contingent into place would likely attract too much attention and thwart the attack. Grossman describes a more likely possibility, in his opinion:

Terrorist cells of four operatives each will strike simultaneously at four different schools. They'll probably pick middle schools with no police officers on site, where the girls are "old enough to rape" but students are not big enough to fight back effectively.

The targets will probably be in states "with no concealed-carry laws and no hunting culture" and in communities where "police do not have rifles."

Rural areas may be favored, where 30 minutes or more could be required for responders to arrive in force.

The attackers will "mow down every kid and teacher they see" as they move in to seize the school. They'll plant bombs throughout the buildings, and "rape, murder and throw out bodies like they did in Russia."

Emergency vehicles responding and children fleeing will be blown up by car bombs in the parking lot.

In all, 100 to 300 children could be slaughtered in a first strike.

Terrorists capable of this are already embedded in communities "all over America," Grossman and Rassa agreed. More will probably gain entry surreptitiously from Mexico, making southern California potentially a prime target.

No time for despair.

It's a grim picture, for certain. "But if we think there's nothing we can do to prepare, that is a defeatist mentality," Rassa said. "We ought to be trying. If we're not trying, we're failing. We may as well give up our guns and surrender now.

"I can't think of a better thing to train up for than protecting our kids. If we try but fall short, look at how much else we'll still be able to handle than we can now.

"What made most of us do active-shooter training? The killings at Columbine. Are we going to wait for something far worse than that before we do the most that we can to stop the terrorists who are coming for our schools?"

"4 Ds" For Thwarting Terrorists' Plans To Massacre Our School Children

Part 2 of 3

By Chuck RemsbergSenior PoliceOne Contributor

[Editor's Note: In Part 1, we documented the plans of Islamic terrorists to strike U.S. schools in murderous raids, claiming the lives of hundreds of children, as reported at a recent anti-terrorism conference, sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI). In Part 2, we summarize countermeasures proposed by one of the conference instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of the popular books On Killing and On Combat.]

As Instructor Todd Rassa pointed out in our first installment, if we are not trying to prepare for and thwart the daunting terrorist threat to our schools and children, we are, in effect, conceding defeat and surrendering without a battle to those who would obliterate us.

There is no simple master plan for an easy victory. But the cumulative effect of many seemingly small countermeasures, effectively applied on a large scale by individual officers and their agencies, can have a powerful impact.

Here are some of the practicalities that Trainer Dave Grossman suggested we consider in beginning to address the critical problem of terrorists coming for our kids.

First mission.

That's overcoming denial. And where schools and terrorist attacks are concerned, denial abounds.

U.S. schools continue to take extensive and overt measures to guard students against the threat of fire, with drills, alarms, sprinkler systems, building codes, etc.-even though there has not been a single child killed by fire in any American school in the last 25 years, Grossman declared.

In contrast, well over 200 deaths have occurred from school violence by active shooters and other non-terrorist offenders over the last dozen years, and Islamic fundamentalists are believed to be plotting attacks that will claim hundreds of child casualties in a single blow. Yet efforts to significantly harden schools as a target of violence have, for the most part, been slow, timid or nonexistent.

"We need to treat the threat of violence like the threat of fire. But if you try to prepare for violence, people think you're crazy, paranoid," Grossman said.

"Denial is the enemy. It's a big, fluffy white blanket we pull up over our eyes to convince ourselves the bad men are never going to come. And while we pull that blanket up, bad guys come and kick us in the groin.

"Let's face the lessons terrorists have already taught us in blood and lives. They are coming, and they may well come for our schools, our kids. We've had all the warning in the world. And if we continue living in denial, then all the lives they've claimed to date have been sacrificed for nothing."

Grossman's 4 Ds.

Besides working to eliminate the big D (denial), Grossman cited four others we need to focus on:

1. Deter.

An armed police presence in a school can provide strong deterrence against attack, Grossman argued. "Terrorists are willing to die, but they desperately don't want to die for nothing, without completing their tactical objective. They want a body count."

To squelch would-be attackers, some Israeli schools deploy on-site police at squad-level strength, and armed guards accompany all class fieldtrips, usually one per 10 students. But even with a single armed officer in a school, "the prospects of a massacre go way down," Grossman said.

Having unarmed security in or around schools is both pointless and ethically derelict, in his opinion. "Don't give someone responsibility for human lives and not give them the tools to do the job. You wouldn't give a firefighter just a hat, uniform and badge, and no hose or water."

Should teachers be armed? At least two states (Utah and New Hampshire) now authorize concealed-carry permits in schools, according to Grossman, and the Federal Safe Schools Act allows for it. Faculty with military experience and a willingness to receive additional training could be a starting point.

"Even one or two armed teachers in a school can make a difference," Grossman said. But given the current American mind-set, "you have to push this envelope very gently."

2. Detect.

"The ultimate achievement is a terrorist takeover that doesn't start," Grossman said. And officers being suspicious-"doing what cops do"-are well positioned to interrupt attack plans before they culminate.

Follow good criminal patrol procedures on traffic stops, for instance, by asking probing questions and being alert for contradictions, inconsistencies, irrationalities, unduly nervous behavior and other indicators of deceit and guilty behavior. Be aware of what you can see inside vehicles or on subjects that may merit closer investigation.

Watch for signs of static or mobile surveillance of potential targets. Terrorists "always conduct a recon," which may involve photographing or videotaping a prospective site, Grossman said. Don't limit your suspicions just to persons who fit the stereotypical terrorist profile. "There are terrorists who are blond and blue eyed."

Inform schools to report any calls from people inquiring about security. Someone claiming to be a concerned parent wanting to know if any armed officers are on the premises may in fact be an operative gauging the vulnerability of the location. The staffer taking the call should jot down the caller ID number and note the precise time and the phone line the call came in on to facilitate further checking. "Any time terrorists bounce off a hard target is a chance to catch them."

3. Delay.

If terrorists do strike, "one man or woman with effective fire from behind cover inside the school can hold off a group of attackers for 5 minutes," saving lives by buying time until police responders "can get in the door," Grossman claimed.

Meantime, at the first hint of trouble, teachers and children should kick in to a preplanned and frequently rehearsed three-step "lock-down model," he recommended. "Sheltering" children in place, as has been attempted in various school shootings, is more likely to be dangerous than protective. Instead, Grossman advises potential victims to:

* Move away from violence, which otherwise tends to be "mesmerizing and paralyzing"

* Move to a pre-selected secure location, someplace "secure enough to keep the bad guys out until the cops come in"

* Move again if you have reason to feel threatened at that spot. "Lock-down does not mean hunker down and die," Grossman said.

"As a last resort," there may be times when a teacher would need the courage to "go toward an attacker." Grossman cited a case in which an active shooter broke a window in a classroom door and reached through to release the locked knob. Teacher and students cowered inside and just waited, whereas a teacher might have "grabbed a chair and attacked his hand" and possibly have delayed or deterred a fatal assault.

Plans on paper "mean nothing," Grossman reminded. "You have to get the schools to rehearse" anti-terrorist scenarios. "Principals have been fired for not doing fire drills," and yet the terrorist threat these days is so much greater. Where are our priorities?

4. Destroy.

As a responding officer, you have to be fully prepared, mentally and physically, to use deadly force to stop the threat. "It is your job to put a chunk of steel in your fist and kill the sons-of-bitches who are coming to kill your kids," Grossman declared in an emotional crescendo in his presentation.

"Fight from the very beginning. Don't wait, thinking you'll fight later." Referring to the terrorist massacre at the school in Beslan, Russia, which we described in Part 1 of this series, Grossman said: "Every minute the Russians waited, the target got harder." If you hesitate in responding, "you'll die with a bullet in the back of your head in front of children."

[Editor's note: In previous installments, we documented the plans of Islamic terrorists to murder hundreds of U.S. school children, as reported at a recent anti-terrorism conference sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI), and we summarized counter measures proposed by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

In this final report, we explore recommendations of another conference speaker, Todd Rassa, a trainer with the SigArms Academy and a member of the advisory board for The Police Marksman magazine. We conclude with Grossman's suggestions of what LE agencies can do to defend our schools despite current budget restraints.]

Trainer Todd Rassa considers active-shooter training, which is now being embraced by more and more departments, as "a good start," but he warned that much more is needed to adequately protect our children from terrorist attacks on schools.

Here are some of the items he enumerated for a conscientious "to do" list:

Rassa's recommendations.

1. Trainevery patrol officer in bomb awareness, crowd management, riot control, ballistic shield tactics, team firing drills and other response skills likely to be needed for a mass school takedown. Responsibility for an immediate effective response will most probably fall heavily on street cops, given the activation time for most SWAT teams.

2. Proper equipment needs to be readied. "Patrol rifles are needed now-as many as possible with as much ammunition as possible," Rassa stressed. Also ballistic shields, helmets and other protective devices for every officer. Have a plan in place to get large amounts of additional ammo to the scene ASAP.

Soft body armor may prove inadequate, but extras should be available anyway in a better-than-nothing effort to protect fleeing hostages by draping vests and ballistic blankets over them. Armored transport vehicles may prove crucial. Less-lethal rounds may be useful for crowd control, but will be futile to attempt against terrorists.

3.Work with school officials to anticipate problems and realistically rewrite their emergency plans. "They are not going to fix themselves," Rassa predicted. Cross-train with school personnel and consider involving community leaders with training on crowd-control tactics and intel collection. Manpower and tactics will be needed to handle "outraged, violent parents" if a siege develops.

SROs, who likely will be targeted by terrorists as first casualties, need training on "surveillance awareness, including real-life testing of school security" by would-be invaders.

4.Expand your active-shooter training to include "large, complicated, multi-adversary scenarios and exercises," Rassa urged. Practice against a booby-trapped environment, simultaneous attacks from multiple levels, ambushes from the rear. Rehearse tactics for CQB with both pistol and rifle.

Also practice counter-assaults on school buses. "What if terrorists hijacked a couple of buses and drove them into a school? What if they hijacked several and spread them out across your town?"

5.Incorporate suicide-bomber shooting drills into your firearms training for every officer. That should include "practicing head shots from a distance with a pistol after running." Build the ability to shoot while moving into your qualifications. Also integrate self-defense DT into firearms training-"blending two important worlds that usually never meet." Even consider training with AK-47s and other "exotic" weapons that may be in your property room, on the chance you may have to use the weapons of neutralized terrorists if yours run empty.

6. Thoroughly familiarize yourself with your schools. Videotape them inside and out and collect and review floor plans, making sure they are kept up to date as remodeling projects take place. Work with schools to get classroom numbers put on street signs and mounted on the exterior. Also check to see if computers in your squad cars can be made compatible with CCTV cameras inside the building, so you can tie in to what's going inside in event of trouble.

7. As a parent, you may want to falsify your occupation on school records so your child will not be easily identified as a desirable hostage.

8. And, of course, stage frequent incident-command training and exercises, so multiple jurisdictions and multiple disciplines (fire, police, EMS, city services, etc.) learn the importance of putting political egos and turf wars aside in the interest of saving children's lives.

Agency actions that don't take $$$

Dave Grossman, the well-known author of On Killing and On Combat , concluded IALEFI's excellent conference with suggestions of how LE agencies can improve their protection of schools without further straining already tight budgets.

1. Encourage officers always to carry off-duty. Always.

No one can predict where a given officer might be when terrorists strike. What if you were off-duty on a visit to your child's school; would you have the primary life-saving tool of your profession with you? Remember, Grossman said, "One person behind cover with effective fire can hold down a whole company of invaders for 5 minutes" while help arrives.

"If we stop them dead in one school and kill them before they kill kids, that will convince the country that we can fight back. If they fail in one school, that will undermine their plan.

"If you walk out off-duty without your gun, every time you pass a fire exit or see a fire extinguisher, say to yourself, 'Firefighters have made more preparations than I have.' Plant the seed with other officers. Once you tell them, they can't not think about it."

2. Exploit opportunities to expand your equipment inventory.

* Many cash-strapped agencies now encourage officers to buy and carry their own rifles on duty. If certain standards and training are maintained, that's a quick way to strengthen your counter-force.

* Officers should also be encouraged to prepare and ride with "go bags" that can be slung over their shoulder as they head into a crisis. Loaded with backup boxes of pistol and rifle ammo, these can be comforting safeguards against running dry in a firefight, where "three magazines can easily be burned up in less than a minute."

* Get the name and phone number of every private owner of a helicopter in your area and coordinate with them ahead of time a plan for pressing their chopper into service in an emergency. Even news agencies might be willing to cooperate if promised "great footage" in exchange for transporting officers to a siege site.

"There will be gridlock chaos on the ground within moments wherever an attack comes," Grossman said. "Helicopters can be great for getting firepower in and wounded out." Practice hovering over schools and landing personnel on the flat roofs that most have.

* Envision fire hoses as "crew-served weapons." At a terrorist scene, hoses can be used not only "to put out fires that may be caused by booby traps" but can also "knock a combatant out of a window 50 yards away-an incredibly effective weapon."

A firefighter directing the hose can be protected behind two officers holding ballistic shields and two officers behind the shields with rifles, Grossman suggested. Obviously, this tactic requires practice well before it's needed.

3. Build the right mind-set in your troops.

As a police officer, "you have to have your heart and mind ready," Grossman said. "In our nation, the military is not coming to save your kids. You are the Delta Force. It's your job to go in like thunder when they come to kill your kids and destroy your way of life.

Chuck co-founded the original Street Survival Seminar and the Street Survival Newsline, authored three of the best-selling law enforcement training textbooks, and helped produce numerous award-winning training videos. His nearly three decades of work earned him the prestigious O.W. Wilson Award for outstanding contributions to law enforcement and the American Police Hall of Fame Honor Award for distinguished achievement in public service.